250px, View towards the Molentargius salt mills. Molentargius - Saline Regional Park (Italian: ''Parco naturale regionale Molentargius - Saline'') is a regional park in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It was established in 1999 to protect and enhance a site of international interest, already included in the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

since 1977 because of its relevance to stopover, wintering, and nesting waterfowl bird species. ''Molentargius'', in Sardinian language, means "donkeys handlers" as salt extraction was the richest industry of the

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

area for millennia, the salt being transported by donkeys. The park is a wetland extending over an area of about 1600 hectares, surrounded by the urbanized areas of Cagliari and the other towns of the metropolitan area and the waterfront of Poetto Beach. The uniqueness of this area is the presence of reservoirs of both freshwater and saltwater, separated by a plain characterized by prevailing aridity called Is Arenas ("The Sands"). Areas with fresh water are the Bellarosa Minore and Perdalonga ponds, which were created to expand rainwater tanks. Areas of saltwater ponds include the production system of the former Statal Saline of Cagliari, consisting of the Bellarosa Maggiore or ''Is Molentargius'' (water storage tank evaporation), the Pond of Quartu (second and third tanks evaporation), the other salting basins (saline of Cagliari). Fenicotteri a Cagliari

From 1850 to now, 230 bird species belonging to 53 families have been recorded in the Molentargius area.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord missing, Italy Parks in Sardinia Regional parks of Italy Ramsar sites in Italy Protected areas established in 1999 1999 establishments in Italy